John Stevens will be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over the evidence he gave to the Macpherson Inquiry into the handling of Stephen's murder.

The inquiry found that there was "institutional racism" within the force.

Now Lord Stevens, the crossbench peer was commissioner of the Metropolitan Police during the initial investigation into Stephen's death.

“I'm glad they're actually doing what they were supposed to do”

Neville Lawrence

Stephen was an 18-year-old aspiring architect who was stabbed to death by a group of up to six white youths in an unprovoked racist attack while he waited at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London, on April 22 1993.

The decision to investigate Stevens comes after a review held last year uncovered allegations of corruption about a detective who worked on the original investigation into Stephen's killing.

Mark Ellison QC's review found there was a high level of suspicion that detective sergeant John Davidson was corrupt before and after he worked on the Lawrence case.

The barrister ruled that these allegations should have been revealed to the public inquiry.

Ellison's report said: "It is a source of some concern to us that nobody in the MPS who was aware of the detail of what Neil Putnam was saying about Mr Davidson appears to have thought to ask him about Mr Davidson's motives in the Lawrence case."

Imran Khan, solicitor to Stephen's mother Baronness Lawrence, said that she welcomed the decision.

He said: "Clearly there are concerns about whether there was full and frank disclosure by the Metropolitan Police of the information that would have given rise to us investigating it further than we did at the time."

And Stephen's father Neville said: "I'm glad they're actually doing what they were supposed to do because this is not the first time that we've asked them to look into it and they've come back with a negative result.

"I'm hoping that this time they're going to come back this time with a result that can help us to get further into the truth of what was happening during the investigation into Stephen's death."

It took more than 18 years to bring two of Stephen's killers, Gary Dobson and David Norris, to justice. The pair were jailed for life in 2012.